On Thursday, batsman of New Zealand cricket team Rachin Ravindra said hitting a match-winning century in the World Cup opener match was inspired by watching footage of India cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, after whom he is named. With a first name made up of 'Ra' for Rahul and 'chin' from Sachin, due to the love his father had for the game, Ravindra lived up to his name in spectacular style. He smashed 123 in an unbeaten stand of 273 with Devon Conway as New Zealand cruised to a nine-wicket victory against defending champions England in Ahmedabad.
The 23-year-old Ravindra, whose parents moved from the south Indian city of Bengaluru to New Zealand, reached his century soon after fellow left-hander Conway got his hundred in front of a sparse crowd at the 132,000-seater stadium.
He clubbed 11 fours and five sixes in his 96-ball innings and admitted he was inspired by Dravid and Tendulkar.
He said, "I think those two are pretty special cricketers. He further said, "Obviously, I've heard a lot of stories and watched a lot of footage, and I guess the influence from my parents and the old-school Indian cricketers was pretty cool.
While continuing his statement, he said, “Being able to watch a lot of their highlights and stuff. Obviously, I idolized Sachin Tendulkar. I guess being a lefty, there's guys you look at; I love Brian Lara, I love Kumar Sangakkara, just the usual gun left-handers."